In 1967, the PDPA split into two major rival factions: the Khalq ( Masses ) was headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin who were supported by elements within the military, and the Parcham ( Banner ) led by Babrak Karmal.

On 27 April 1978, the PDPA, led by Nur Mohammad Taraki, Babrak Karmal and Amin Taha overthrew the government of Mohammad Daoud, who was assassinated along with all his family members in a bloody military coup.

On 14 September, Amin overthrew Taraki, who was killed.

Daoud was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as head of state and government on 30 April 1978.

Amin won the struggle, and Taraki was killed on his orders.

Nur Muhammad Taraki, the leader of the Khalqists, was elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council, Chairman of the Council of Ministers and retained his post as General Secretary of the PDPA Central Committee.

To make matters worse for the Parchamites, the term Parcham was, according to Taraki, a word synonymous with factionalism.

Taraki was elected its chairman, while Amin became its deputy.

This assassination attempt prompted Amin to conspire against Taraki, and when Taraki returned from a trip to Havana, he was ousted, and later suffocated on Amin's orders.

When Taraki was ousted, Amin promised " from now on there will be no one-man government ..." Attempting to pacify the population, he released a list of some 18, 000 people who had been executed and blamed the executions on Taraki.

" While it was not clear, who Taraki was pointing at, the Soviet Union was the only country which Afghanistan neighbored which had the strength to occupy the country.

The red flag introduced under Taraki was replaced in 1980, shortly after the Soviet intervention, to the more traditional colours black, red and green.

The government was divided along factional lines, with President Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin of the Khalq faction against Parcham leaders such as Babrak Karmal and Mohammad Najibullah.

Kosygin was unfavorable to the proposal on the basis of the negative political repercussions such an action would have for his country, and he rejected all further attempts by Taraki to solicit Soviet military aid in Afghanistan.

At the meeting, Taraki was successful in negotiating some Soviet support, including the redeployment of two Soviet armed divisions at the Soviet-Afghan border, the sending of 500 military and civilian advisers and specialists and the immediate delivery of Soviet armed equipment sold at 25 percent below the original price.

Supposedly, two of Amin's guards killed the former president Nur Muhammad Taraki with a pillow, and Amin was suspected to be a CIA agent.

Dagarwal was eventually replaced by Nur Muhammad Taraki.

On the 1 January 1965 Taraki with Babrak Karmal established the Democratic People's Party of Afghanistan, while at the beginning the party was running under the name People's Democratic Tendency, since there were no officially political party law in Afghanistan at that time.

Taraki was later invited by the Communist Party of the Soviet Unions International Department in Moscow later that year.

Later on Taraki established the first radical newspaper in Afghan history under the name The Khalq, the newspaper was eventually forced to stop publishing in 1966 by the government.

The vote, however, was close, and Taraki in turn tried to neutralize Karmal by appointing new members to the committee who were his own supporters.

On 1 May, Taraki became President, Prime Minister and General Secretary of the PDPA.

Nur Muhammad Taraki, Secretary General of the PDPA, became President of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

After the revolution, Taraki assumed the Presidency, Prime Ministership and General Secretary of the PDPA.

In September 1979, Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin seized power after a palace shootout that resulted in the death of President Taraki.

Taraki did advocate a united front briefly after former Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud Khan's takeover in an attempt to gain places in the government for his followers, but this effort was unsuccessful.

In 1937 he started working for Abdul Majid Zabuli, the Minister of Economics, who introduced Taraki to several Russians.

Soon after taking power a power struggle began between the Khalqists led by Taraki and Amin and the Parchamites led by Babrak Karmal.

In 1967, the PDPA split into two rival factions, the Khalq ( Masses ) faction headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin and the Parcham ( Flag ) faction led by Babrak Karmal.

Nur Mohammad Taraki, Babrak Karmal, and Hafizullah Amin overthrew the regime of Daoud, and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan ( DRA ).

The assassination of Mir Akbar Khyber led Taraki, along with Hafizullah Amin ( the organiser of the revolution ) and Babrak Karmal, to initiate the Saur Revolution and establish the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

At the founding congress of the PDPA, held in Taraki's own home, Taraki won a competitive election against Babrak Karmal to the post of general secretary on 1 January 1965.

Twenty-seven men gathered at Nur Mohammed Taraki's house in Kabul, elected Taraki PDPA Secretary General, Babrak Karmal as Deputy Secretary General, and chose a five-member Central Committee ( or Politburo ).

* General Babrak Shinwari, former head of the youth affairs section of the PDPA under Taraki and Amin, who migrated to Peshawar in Pakistan in the winter of 1992.

Twenty-seven gentlemen gathered at Taraki's house in Kabul, elected Taraki as the first party Secretary General and Karmal as Deputy Secretary General, and chose a five-member Central Committee also called a Politburo.

The Soviet Union set in Moscow played a major role in the reconciliation of the Khalq faction led by Taraki and the Parcham faction led by Karmal.

Taraki and Karmal maintained close contact with the Soviet Embassy and its personnel in Kabul, and it appears that Soviet Military Intelligence ( Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye-GRU ) assisted Khalq's recruitment of military officers.

The largest of these included Khalq () led by Taraki, and Parcham () led by Karmal.

The main differences between the factions were ideological, with Taraki supporting the creation of a Leninist-like state, while Karmal wanted to establish a " broad democratic front ".

Fearing a communist coup d ' etat, Daoud ordered the arrest of certain PDPA leaders, including Taraki and Karmal, while placing others such as Hafizullah Amin under house arrest.

Especially on the ideological level, Karmal and Taraki differed in their perceptions of Afghanistan's revolutionary potential: